Benefits of GIS for Natural Gas Utilities
Mobile GIS generally refers to the process of gathering data from various company systems (ERP, OMS, CIS, etc.), and passing the data through a web service so that it is available for personnel to access via their smart phones or tablets.
GIS is being used by more and more natural gas utilities to enhance emergency preparedness. While it is used extensively by electric utilities, I would argue that it might be even more critical for gas utilities, because one failure can lead to catastrophic consequences. It’s basically the inverse of electric utility preparedness – electric utilities handle far more outages than gas utilities, but even a single gas emergency can lead to death and destruction.
Benefits of GIS
I’ve previously written about mobile GIS in a very general way, but specifically for natural gas utilities, every second counts when a gas emergency occurs. GIS can facilitate quick information which in turn can increase the speed with which crews can respond to an incident. It can also help crews navigate roads and avoid traffic to reach the intended destination as quickly as possible.
Location data of natural gas assets can essentially be uploaded onto an employee’s mobile device, which helps show crews where they are in relation to the site of the emergency. Assets can also be tagged or color-coded to show which ones are most critical.
GIS can also be used to show the households impacted by an outage, as well as customer relight progress, so that crews can be deployed efficiently.
Of course, these benefits will degrade if employees cannot easily access the information. The devices must be easy to use, and employees must receive adequate training on how to use them. Similarly, employees must understand the data, so it must be presented in the most intuitive way possible.
But assuming these basic attributes are met, GIS is critical for natural gas crews in order to respond to dangerous gas emergencies in the most effective and efficient manner possible.
